ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council has planned to hold a private meeting next week to discuss a decision by Afghan Taliban to ban female aid workers.
Diplomats said that the closed-door meeting had been requested by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Japan for January 13. The UAE had announced the request in a tweet earlier.
Ban on female aid workers
On December 4, 2022, the Afghan Taliban announced the ban on female aid workers.
Earlier, the Taliban banned women and girls from attending universities. The Taliban earlier stopped girls from attending high school in March.
Martin Griffiths, the UN aid chief, is expected to visit Afghanistan in the coming weeks to meet with Taliban leaders.
At least four major world groups had suspended operations in Afghanistan because they said they could not run their programmes without the female staff in the war-torn country.
The UN has said that 97 percent of Afghans live in abject poverty and two-thirds of their population needed aid to survive. According to the UN, about 20 million people in Afghanistan face acute hunger.
